A reporter's story: Finding homeless families

Unemployment in central Florida is so acute that some families are now living in their cars. So how did Scott Pelley's team track down people without addresses?

2012Jul 29

Facebook

Twitter

Reddit

Flipboard

A reporter's story: Finding homeless families

"Guess what? It's getting worse."

Those were words that CBS News producer Nicole Young didn't expect to hear about poverty in central Florida. After all, last year Nicole worked with Scott Pelley on a 60 Minutes piece about families in that region who had lost their jobs, lost their homes, and moved into highway motels.

Hard times generation, 60 minutes OT

How much worse could it get? Well, Nicole learned from a school social worker that many of those families had run through their savings. Those motels were now unaffordable, and so some parents and their kids were living in their cars.

Nicole said she had to see it for herself, and on Overtime this week she tells us how she met and got to know the families that Scott profiles in his 60 Minutes piece "Hard Times Generation," which originally aired in November.

While she was researching this piece, Nicole forged close bonds with the people she met, and was struck by their courage. One girl, high school freshman Arielle Metzger, lives with her father, brother, and dog in a small truck - and yet not even this hardship will sway her commitment to her schoolwork and education.

As you'll see both on Overtime and "60 Minutes," Arielle uses gas station bathrooms to wash up and get ready for school, and Nicole was again struck by the young woman's composure.

"I remember when I was a freshman in high school," Nicole told Overtime. "I remember how important it was to feel like a girl and thought of as a beautiful, young lady. The fact that I saw this young lady get up every day and fight this fight and try to go to school with a normal face, I felt for her. And I give the girl credit because most adults couldn't handle that."

To see Scott Pelley's original March 2011 report on homelessness, also called "Hard Times Generation," click here.